Monday, August 9, 2010

Nightmare on 34th st. Isiah returns

The whole thing is almost too bizarre to believe. As the story of the Isiah Thomas rehiring by Jim the sucker Dolan continues to unfold it gets stranger and stranger. Turns out Mr. Dolan did not want to hire Isiah back as a consultant. He wanted to hire him back as the gm. Tell me I'm dreaming. The only thing that stopped it was the fact Donnie Walsh, president of operations and current gm, went ballistic. And the only thing that will stop it from happening a year from now is a miracle, unbelievable. Let us take a small trip back in time to Isiah's first run on Broadway.
Let us start with the Eddie Curry deal. From Knicks News in 05NEW YORK, October 4, 2005 – "New York Knickerbockers President of Basketball Operations Isiah Thomas announced today that Eddy Curry and Antonio Davis have been acquired from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Tim Thomas, Michael Sweetney, Jermaine Jackson, a conditional first-round draft choice in the 2006 NBA Draft" (turned out to be the second pick in the draft), "two future second-round draft selections and the opportunity to exchange a future draft choice" (became the #9 pick in '07' for the # 23 pick). Not to mention the team being saddled with Curry's contract for 5 years.
Hey everybody makes a bad deal. as long as you follow it up with a good one and learn from your mistakes.
"The Knicks acquired Marbury, Penny Hardaway and Cezary Trybanski from Phoenix for Antonio McDyess, Howard Eisley, Charlie Ward, Maciej Lampe, the rights to Milos Vujanic, two first-round draft picks and cash." One of those draft picks turned out to be a lottery pick in the 2010 draft. So lets recap. That is three top ten picks for Eddie Curry and Stephan Marbury, and all the salary cap space they ate up. We will not even bother to discuss the signings of Vin Baker, Jerome James, and the Steve Francis trade. I don't know what I was thinking, with a track record like that how could Dolan not bring him back.
OK so maybe it is not his ability to pull off great trades that endears him to Mr. Dolan. Maybe it is Isiah's great character. His strength in crisis. His sheer courage. His ability to stand up and take the hits for those around him. Let us go back to October of 2008. Isiah is rushed to the hospital after an overdose of sleeping pills. Well, considering how much thought went into the deals he made the man must have needed his sleep. So how does Isiah handle the news that an ambulance raced from his house to the hospital? He releases a statement claiming it was for his daughter. He tries to cover it up by throwing his daughter under the bus. Now that is class. That is just the type of guy I want running my organization. Forget the sex scandal that followed. This story tells you everything you need to know about Isiah Thomas
Jim Dolan is an idiot. We have known that for quite a while now. He has let Glen Sather stick around 10 years and deliver nothing. He hired Frank Layden and Isiah. And yes, maybe I am jealous I don't work for Cablevision. Apparently it is one of the most secure jobs around. But bringing Isiah Thomas back to this organization, an organization he played a big role in destroying, is a slap in the face of every Knick fan, every sports fan in the city. If Isiah Thomas is rehired as gm of the Knicks I hope there is a bonfire outside MSG made of burning Knick tickets that reaches the tops of the skyscrapers. I hope every cable customer switches to Verizon. I hope Jim the moron Dolan loses all of daddy's money and has to get a real job. Just don't put him in charge of hiring.